Moshe Lion wins by landslide in Jerusalem; Ron Huldai holds on in Tel Aviv

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion defeated challenger Yossi Havilio and will serve as the capital’s mayor for another five-year term, according to results from the Interior Ministry’s municipal elections center, which were held throughout the country on Tuesday.

According to the interim results that were true to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Lion won 81.5% of the vote. This, however, does not include what are known as “double envelopes” – votes by soldiers, police officers, and others who could not vote in their assigned ballots. While Lion clinched the victory, the number is not final. Officials said that approximately 114,000 double envelopes had been cast.

In Tel Aviv, incumbent Ron Huldai was re-elected after opponent Orna Barbivai conceded Wednesday morning.

Huldai, 79, has served as the mayor of Tel Aviv since 1998.

“Good luck to Ron Huldai who will continue to serve as mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Thank you to the great public who supported me and to all the partners along the way,” Barbivai wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Mayoral candidates need to win at least 40% to win. If not, a second round will be held between the top two contenders on March 10.

Haifa is headed to a second round, as former mayor

Yonah Yahav, who served as the city’s mayor between 2003-2018, only reached 36.2%. He will face David Etzyoni, who won 21.9% of the vote.

In Israel’s fourth major city, Beersheba, incumbent Rubik Danilovitz was not challenged and will serve another term.

In the haredi sector, Agudat Yisrael’s Hanoch Zeibart defeated Shas’s Uriel Busso, who is also currently Israel’s health minister, with 59% of the vote. Zeibart will become mayor for the second time, after serving as Bnei Brak’s mayor between 2013-2018.

early 2021, the IAEA reported Monday.

On the one hand, this is significant. It not only is complying with the West’s request to freeze its 60% highly enriched uranium progress, but rather, it is also reducing the existing stock.

Sixty-percent enriched uranium is only one level away from the 90% weaponized level. So, while meaningful symbolically, in statistical terms, the change is not worth much.

The reduction was from 128.3 kg. to 121.5 kg. leaves Iran with enough enriched uranium at the 60% level to take the small jump to 90% and in about a week have enough weaponized uranium for three nuclear weapons.

Additionally, some of the diluted uranium was only at the 20% level; other uranium enrichment at that level increased from 567 kg. to 712 kg.

It is currently estimated that Tehran has enough enriched uranium at the 20% level to develop another four weapons – if it decides to try for a “nuclear breakout.”

Combined, that means even after this backstep, Iran still has significant enriched uranium quantities to have seven to 10 nuclear bombs’ worth of uranium within a couple of months. This is because the major jump for enriching uranium is from low enriched levels of 3% or 5% up to 20%, according to scientists.

From 20%, the qualitative distance to 90% is shorter than the distance to get to 20% in the first place.

And that is not the only problem Tehran failed to address.

In September, it tossed out eight of the most important IAEA inspectors, the same ones who caught Iran enriching up to 84% in one nuclear facility in February 2022.

As well, the ayatollahs once again violated a deal with the IAEA to restore much of the camera surveillance access of its facilities, which it took away in early 2021 and again in mid-2022.

Tehran is also not even trying to answer the IAEA’s questions about military aspects of its nuclear program, which the Mossad revealed from nuclear secrets it seized in a 2018 raid in Tehran.

On Wednesday, it was reported that Iranian Information and Communications Technology Minister Issa Zarepour had told state media a Russian space launch vehicle would send an Iranian satellite to space later this week.

As usual with Iranian space launches, complicated questions arise about whether there is dual-use technology that could lead to advances in Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, underlying a lack of trust and inside knowledge.

Until now, most of the focus has been on whether Tehran could weaponize enough uranium for a nuclear bomb. But another key element for nuclear weapons is the ability to deliver or fire them at a target.

Last December, Iran launched a rocket with a space capsule that had a living animal in it, as Tehran pressed on with its plans to send astronauts into space. The report said the capsule had reached an altitude of 130 kilometers.

In September, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps successfully launched a third satellite into low orbit, after working on the project for only a few years. The satellite was the third version of the imaging satellite Noor, which means light in Persian. The Noor-3 satellite was reportedly placed in an orbit 450 km. above Earth.

In August 2022, an Iranian-owned, Russian-built satellite – presented as having the capability to take high-resolution photos – was successfully launched from Kazakhstan in a joint Russian-Iranian project.

This all points to Iranian progress in delivering nuclear weapons – should it ever move in that direction. Tehran only made a slight tactical retreat this week to avoid a harsh censure from the IAEA next week.

By tossing a bone to the IAEA and the West, it will be harder for the IAEA to censure Tehran, let alone refer the issue to the UN Security Council for a more significant confrontation.

Iran may also temporarily be somewhat deflated by attacks on its proxies in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria, as well as Israeli victories against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But for Iran to reduce the threat it presents, it would need to reduce or ship out far more of its uranium stock and address the other issues that continue to suggest that its purposes are nefarious.

Israel’s ground assault on Gaza. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry in the enclave says nearly 30,000 people have been confirmed killed.

Michigan Democratic officials vowed to do more to win over voters.

“Tomorrow is the first day of this general election,” Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II told volunteers working on behalf of Biden as results rolled in on Tuesday night.

“We are not afraid of people participating in democracy. We are not afraid of voters. We are not afraid of people who are ready to speak out in good faith in good conscience because they have good intentions,” he said.

Biden Michigan campaign manager Mike Frosolone told party organizers their efforts would pivot to the general-election effort in the state, with door-knocking, phone banking, and the opening of several offices statewide.

“We know when voters see President Biden and Donald Trump’s record side by side, they’re going to choose President Biden,” he said. He said Biden would lay out this case in his State of the Union address on March 7.

Biden, 81, faces low general approval ratings and concern about his age, as does former president Trump, 77. Trump was formally ordered to pay about $450 million for fraudulently manipulating his net worth by a New York judge this month and faces four unrelated criminal prosecutions, in which he has pleaded not guilty.

Some 35% of Republicans backed former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley in the Michigan primary, a potential sign of weakness for Trump as well. Some of her voters have said they won’t back Trump in a general election.

Any permanent solution to the Israel-Gaza conflict remains a long way off, and the death toll continues to climb, with an estimated one-quarter of the population close to famine. If Trump is reelected he is expected to be a strong supporter of Israel and its rightwing leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

A Reuters/IPSOS poll published Tuesday found “extremism” is the top worry for American voters going into the 2024 election, besting the economy or immigration, and that most judge Biden better equipped to deal with the issue.

In a statement Tuesday evening about the results, Biden contrasted himself to Trump on issues like abortion, healthcare, and the economy but did not mention Gaza or the war in the Middle East.

Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement Wednesday that Michigan’s primary results “make clear the people of Michigan are ready” to address issues this election could impact, including voting rights, gun violence, and reproductive rights, but she did not mention the Middle East.

Organizers of the uncommitted campaign said they’d continue to challenge Democrats.

“Our delegation plans to hold the Democratic nominee accountable to our community’s anti-war agenda at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago,” said Listen to Michigan, one of the groups behind the campaign. “See you there.”

The White House said on Tuesday that Biden cares about Michigan’s Arab American community. National Security Communications Director John Kirby said that The White House takes conversations with Arab Americans very seriously.